


Only Skin

by TerribleAndRed



Series: Red is the Warmest Color: Cersei and Melisandre are Ice and Fire [5]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Biting, Childhood Trauma, Cunnilingus, Dreaming, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Femslash, Flashbacks, Gen, Hair-pulling, Happy Ending, Inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire, Inspired by Game of Thrones, Inspired by Music, Lesbian Character, Lesbian Sex, Minor Melisandre of Asshai/Stannis Baratheon, Nightmares, Non-Consensual Tattooing, Non-Sexual Slavery, Oral Sex, Other, POV First Person, POV Lesbian Character, POV Melisandre of Asshai, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad with a Happy Ending, Sex, Tattoos, Trauma, dream - Freeform, f/f - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 10:31:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15839424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerribleAndRed/pseuds/TerribleAndRed
Summary: Melisandre's inability to sleep was best concealed from mortal men...and especially from a dangerous woman like Cersei Lannister. To sleep meant to dream, and to dream meant to return to her past, where she could not let herself go.





	Only Skin

"Now in the quiet hour/When I am sleeping/I cannot keep the night from coming in...The fire was your hair/And then the moonlight caught your eye/And you rose through the air/Well, if you've seen true light/Then this is my prayer" —Joanna Newsom, "Cosmia"

"She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. _Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night._ Some nights she drowsed, but never for more than an hour. One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One day she would be free of dreams. _Melony,_ she thought, _Lot Seven."_   –Melisandre, _A Dance with Dragons_

Her inability to sleep was best concealed from mortal men...and especially from a dangerous woman. But she could not sleep...would not. She could not return to the distant past where sleep thrust her. “Take off your clothes” the Lannister queen commanded, after leading Melisandre into her chambers. Melisandre had won Cersei’s trust; her tongue knew how to please the Queen, and it pleased Melisandre to use her magic to bring a flush of warmth to Cersei’s icy glare. Melisandre had disrobed for many before over so many years she no longer counted them: men, women, a King, but never a Queen. Yes, there had been Selyse Baratheon, who wanted her so badly, but she never let Stannis’ queen touch her. That would divert her from her mission, for which she must focus on Stannis alone, as much as she disliked the feeling of his gritting teeth aside her cheek as she caressed his face, whispering into his ear that he was the Lord’s Chosen as he grunted while thrusting inside her. She longed for a woman instead, and not Selyse. But she bore the discomfort because it was what she needed to do. For R’hllor. To merge with Azor Ahai and reach transcendence through their unison…

But Stannis was not Azor Ahai, and now she felt drawn to the unfamiliar, grand bed that held someone who was no simpering Selyse, no stone-faced Stannis. Cersei’s green eyes bore into her with a tinge of wickedness, and Melisandre shrugged off her red robe as she approached the bed, her heart beating with increasing rapidity. All those years of using her powers for a man were over. Now, now she could use them on someone worthy of them. As Cersei lay in the bed, Melisandre stood in front of her, slowly unbraiding her long red hair as Cersei grabbed Melisandre’s body to her lips and kissed her stomach. On most nights, she had been content to sit by her lord’s blessed flames, her cheeks washed by the heat as if by a lover’s kisses. But even R’hllor’s flames never sent a rush through her like Cersei’s kisses, and as she finished unbraiding her hair, Cersei grabbed Melisandre’s loose, thick hair to pull her onto the bed, where she fell onto her back as Cersei kissed her from above, hungrily on the mouth and then moving further and further down until...yes, yes, oh yes, she could not remember when she had last felt the pleasure of a lover’s lips devouring her there, where she needed to be loved. As she climaxed, Melisandre grabbed the back of Cersei’s short blonde hair and bit down hard on her own lip, almost drawing blood. The Queen rose up to lie beside her, circling her finger around Melisandre’s nipple with one hand and rubbing her fingers over the ruby at Melisandre’s throat with the other. It felt so right, and it felt so comfortable. Her eyelids started to flutter. _Too comfortable. I must not sleep. I cannot sleep..._

“Melony!” the woman’s voice cried. Melony’s eyes were filled with tears, and her neck hurt as she tried looking back at her mother while the slaver pulled on the chain that was attached to her collar. Her mother reached out to her with one arm, her other arm clutching baby Melora to her breast. And then the tears came, uncontrollably. Melony sobbed as the man yanked at her chain, pulling her away from her mother and sister, who remained on the auction block. “Lot Seven!” he yelled. She fell to her knees but still he dragged her and, tiny girl she was, malnourished, her body slid off the block and onto the floor, where she hit the hard floor with a _thud_ . The crowd laughed at the sight of the scrawny, naked little girl sobbing, and when she felt the next yank at her neck Melony pulled herself upright and stood up. _Don’t look back, if you look back you are lost._ She was property, no longer a daughter or a sister. She had been once, then taken to Lot Seven, and now sold. As the slaver pulled her through the crowd she wondered who her mother and sister would be sold to. _Would they remain together? Will mother tell Melora about me, or will she try to forget me to move forward and forget, just as I must forget them?_ Finally the crowd vanished; she had managed to stumble through them and was huddled in a group of other children just like her, shivering in their nudity even under the hot sun. The slaver had others join him now, and Melony’s eyes widened in terror as she saw their faces, tattooed with flames all over their cheeks, rising up onto and around their eyes. She had seen the tattooed faces of slaves before but never faces this _covered_ , this frightening. _The Red God_ , she thought, _I’ve been sold to the Red Temple._ She did not quite know what they did or what this meant for her, only that their strangely-tattooed men spoke of a Great Other and of a Lord of Light. She had heard them faintly in the background as she snuck around alleyways looking for food, but that was before she had been captured and sold. She had been so focused on finding food that she had not bothered to look at their faces… their faces, which filled her with terror.

 _Look at them and don’t look away like a scared little girl. They’ll hurt you more if you look scared._ One of the men approached her and detached her chain, then and pulled her away from the other children, although her collar with its individual chain still remained. However, he took her by the hand instead of dragging her by the chain as the slaver had done. His hand clasped hers more gently than she would have expected from someone whose face was so frightening, and somehow she felt her fear dissolve a bit. His head was bald, and the tattooed flames flooded his face and licked his scalp. He threw a pile of red fabric over her head to cover her shivering body, and stroked her dirty, tangled brown hair. “Bless this child, R’hllor,” he said, slowly stroking her face. As he touched her face, his fingers warmed it, and she felt herself becoming strangely comfortable. _Too comfortable..._

For before she could notice, three other red priests had her pinned down upon the floor, with the slaver looking down upon her wickedly. “She’s yours now,” he said. “Take her to the Temple after you mark her.” The man with the gentle grip gave the slaver his gold, and then extracted something odd-looking from his billowy robes. Three tattooed, flaming faces stared down at her with what looked like pity as they pinned her down, and the man drew himself closer to her with the strange instruments. She suddenly felt sick and started to scream, but he placed his hand over her mouth to stifle her cries. “Child, this will be easier if you do not move. You are one of us now.” Melony squirmed under the priests’ grasp, and their leader stroked her cheek. “A pretty little cheek, but it is only skin, and our flesh belongs to the Lord of Light” he said as he placed something under her nose that made her start to lose consciousness when she inhaled it. She began to feel the prick of a hot needle on her cheek where his hand had caressed it, _quiet, it is only skin, only skin, he repeated,_ now being caressed by the needles instead, covered with flames, and she began to scream...but then she felt the whip...

No, not the whip. She opened her eyes and she was in the Queen’s chambers, panting as she sat up in bed and felt Cersei’s fingernails rake across her back. _It felt like the whip, it felt like the whip they used on me_ . She grasped the ruby at her neck and breathed a deep sigh of relief that it was still there. She did not need a looking-glass to know that the beautiful pale-skinned, red-haired woman would look back from it, not the starving little girl with tangled brown hair screaming as her face became covered with the tattoos that marked those sold to the Red God. But in the Queen’s warm arms  she had let herself fall asleep, and to sleep meant to dream, and to dream meant to go back there. To Melony, Lot Seven. Where she could not let herself go. Tears streamed down her face, and she held in a sob as she swatted Cersei’s hand off her back. Cersei then sat up as well, groggy from sleep, for it was still the middle of the night, _Good. I did not let myself sleep too long. One night, please R’hllor, one night I will not sleep at all_.

Cersei grabbed Melisandre’s breast and pinched her nipple, hard, making Melisandre yelp. “I have taken a liking to you, yes,” Cersei said slyly as she combed her fingers through the thick red waves of hair, but you’re already trying to escape my bed? I must have been wrong to trust you.” Confident that her eyes no longer brimmed with tears, Melisandre turned to Cersei with the composure she always needed to present herself with to others. “No, it was a dark dream, it’s over. But can you…” she paused, and Cersei looked her in the eyes quizzically “until the night is over, hold onto me, hold on until the night is over.” Cersei smirked “I am the Queen. No one tells _me_ what to do.” But Melisandre’s red eyes penetrated something within Cersei, who then yanked Melisandre’s hair to pull her back down into the bed, where she rubbed her shoulders. “I will not fall asleep again,” Melisandre said softly, and Cersei bit her neck. This was good pain though, and Melisandre smiled, it was not like the pain she had felt when... _no. Melony will not visit me again tonight. Nor any other night.._

Her eyelids fluttered again and when they opened, she saw light streaming through the window, felt fingernails stroking her upper thighs. “You endless sleeper, it’s so late. I postponed my Small Council meeting to watch you sleep” Cersei smirked, and Melisandre flipped over to face her in disbelief. Somehow, in Cersei’s arms, the dark dreams truly were over and she slept. She had slept without dreams! Melisandre started to laugh, and kissed Cersei deeply. She pulled back and saw her face reflected in Cersei’s green eyes, her beautiful unmarked face, a face that enchanted kings and now queens. Stroking Cersei’s hair and kissing her neck gently, she was happy, and felt _free_.


End file.
